VIDEO: Cancer risk in stroke survivors seems high, but more study needed

NASHVILLE, TENN. – Patients who survive an ischemic stroke may not be totally out of the woods when it comes to another potential threat: cancer.

Dr. Adnan Qureshi, professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and radiology, and program director of the endovascular surgical neuroradiology program at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, mined data from the large Vitamin Intervention for Stroke Prevention (VISP) study and found during a 2-year follow-up period that stroke survivors had a 40% greater likelihood of developing cancer, compared with the general population based on data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries.

The odds for developing cancer were especially high in patients who were younger than 50 years at the time of their stroke. They faced 40% greater odds of developing cancer than did patients aged 50 years or older, Dr. Qureshi reported at the International Stroke Conference sponsored by the American Heart Association.

However, retrospectively analyzing an 11-year-old study isn’t the best way to get details about such a relationship, according to Dr. Robert Adams, professor of neurology at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, and director of South Carolina’s REACH Stroke Network. Ascertainment bias could be a driving factor, and more investigation is crucial, he said.

msullivan@frontlinemedcom.com

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